Crime and politicians: a day of ratcheting up the rhetoric

The Conservative party leader must have been thrilled on Tuesday night when he heard that the Sun's splash headline for yesterday on his "exclusive" plans to relax the rules on stop and search read: "Police, Cameron, Action."

Downing Street was less than thrilled. That morning the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, had outlined to the Cabinet her plans for neighbourhood policing teams, including new rules on stop and search when the Flanagan report on cutting police red tape is published next Monday.

Even before the first editions of the Sun with its Cameron exclusive interview reached Westminster, the Downing Street media machine had swung into action.

A late night ring round the political correspondents offered an "exclusive", trumping the Tory pledge to scrap the paperwork involved: the promise to roll out across the country powers to stop and search suspects without needing to give any reason. These searches based on "sus" laws have so far been used in only small parts of Britain's inner cities blighted by gun and knife crime.

The Daily Mirror, the Sun's nearest tabloid rival, said Downing Street sources had told them that "Mr Brown has decided it is time to get tough on youngsters going armed in public". Cameron said the current rules had to go.

The political auction raged throughout the day from the morning television and radio bulletins through prime minister's questions in the Commons to the evening bulletins. So tight was the political "man marking" employed that even seasoned observers found it difficult at times to tell who was selling which policy. Cameron used prime minister's questions to lay claim to a three-year Conservative campaign to scrap form-filling by police who stop and search suspects in the street.

Brown said the government was "taking action" to reduce police bureaucracy and, turning to punishment, added that there had been no U-turn on government plans to build a new generation of super-sized Titan jails.

"Shouldn't you just accept that people aren't safe under Labour?" Cameron replied at prime minister's questions, promising "far more" action to tackle weapons.

"Young black and British Asian kids ... are being stabbed and shot and the rules are getting in the way of protecting them. I know this is controversial but Britain has changed. We cannot solve a 2008 problem by looking at it through 1980s eyes. It's a critical debate and one we have to confront. Will you scrap the stop form?" demanded Cameron. "We are taking the action that is necessary and you should be supporting us," retorted Brown.

In the battle for votes in advance of May's London mayoral election, Ken Livingstone promised 1,000 more uniformed police in London, as Boris Johnson, his Conservative rival, was left denying Brown's claims that he was planning to cut the Scotland Yard budget.

As if to keep up the pressure, Brown also swept aside any doubts that the justice secretary, Jack Straw, might have been having second thoughts about Titan jails. The new prisons, which will each hold 2,500 inmates, were "projects of national importance", he said.

The one person curiously absent from this "law and order" frenzy was the home secretary. Smith, whose last concerted media intervention to sell 42 days detention without charge turned into an argument about unsafe streets and kebab shops, left it to her police minister, Tony McNulty, to argue the case in the papers and on the airwaves. Home Office sources tried to play down the significance of the "announcements", pointing out that stop and search could be expanded within existing legislation and suggesting forms will be revised rather than scrapped.

A week ago the Home Office published reputable figures showing that crime had actually dropped by 9% in England and Wales.

Not only that, the police figures showed the fall in crime has been sustained over the last four quarters and is intensifying.

There was even good news on gun crime, with the number shot dead going down from 55 to 49 in the past year. Overall violence against the person fell by 8%; sex offences were down 9%; robbery fell 17%; domestic burglary was down 8%; car crime fell by 12% - all compared with the same quarter in the last year.

The same set of crime figures showed, however, that a significant section of the public still suffer a high level of anxiety about violent crime.

But the public would not have known the good news because, despite Smith describing them as "an excellent set of figures", she chose to publish her counter-terrorism bill on the same morning, wiping out whatever media impact they might have had.

Instead of coverage which might have reduced fear of crime, the terror debate only reminded the public about Brown's fragile hold over his own backbenchers as the speculation mounted over the 42- days issue.